Very very easy to learn, and replay value is high as the light amount of strategy needed can vary game by game.

Some establishments pay out on your turn, some on others, some on all.
The goal never changes, but the way you get there could be different each time. It’s based on dice rolls that activate a number of cards.

I’ve rated the components a 3 start, only because the coins are cardboard. There isn’t much to the game for components, so I would have thought plastic coins would be in order.

I enjoyed the fact that not all numbers were accounted for on each method of payout. For example, some only pay on your turn.

My fear was this was more a kids game where “everyone gets a trophy”, but was proved otherwise by the way in which the establishments pay out.

Sometimes, nothing pays off.

It moves very quickly and you can get thru a full four player game in about 30 minutes. We like this aspect a lot, as often we have members in our group who show up later, or drop off early because of work schedules.
Despite this game not being a favorite for the strategy/wartime crowds out there, it moves fast enough that it’s not a huge time commitment allowing for a longer game later.

It’s also pretty fun to watch with the artwork being highly illustrative and fun. As fellow gamer had described it to me, it’s like Settlers of Catan minus the hate!

There’s a bunch to it, but you can pick it up in stages easy enough. One would generally excel in one area, and round out the others in time so the learning is naturally staggered.

That being said, it’s not all that difficult.

You can take largely the farming, baking, or livestock route to get food to feed your family. It’s interesting that they don’t die if you can’t feed them, but are given beggar cards instead. These are worth -3 points at the end so it’s best not to get them!

It’s ultimately a race for actions. Only one person can use one an action per round. The game itself scales elegantly as more actions are introduced each round, and are increasingly relevant as time would pass.

Scoring occurs at the end. Diversifying is a must to score effectively, but you don’t need to be ‘all in’, in all categories to do well. A good presence in one, with simply presence in another will net you some good points.

It scores similar to history of the world, where all teams could be very close in points in the end.

I must say, with over 100 occupations there’s tons of replay value here. You only get like ten in the beginning and that’s it.

I was disappointed at first, to the number of major improvements, but after playing a bit, they are really stepping stones for some heavy hitting minor improvements. (Go figure?)

In the end, it’s a fun, feel good, family friendly game while at the same time, not alienating gamers whom might not generally enjoy those types.

A dungeon delving remake of the classic Hero’s Quest, except you can recruit a raiding party.

You start in the Inn where you can recruit adventurers and gather up supplies. There are an abundance of characters to choose from.

Some are amazing, some are terrible, most of middle of the road.

As mentioned in other reviews, there are some combinations that are crazy powerful, while others are a dud, but it’s how you combine them that will work, a mechanic in most card games. You do have a hand limit and the option to toss back what you don’t want which is key to take advantage of.

The tomb cards were pretty interesting, and did hit various aspects of a dungeon crawling game. Items, spells, weapons, crypt cards. They might have been better with one fewer category for simplicity because the spells can be learned or used as a once off. I didn’t mind the extra time though figuring these out. We only played once.

One of the players did have a bit of trouble getting started, but quickly used thieving actions to steal what he needed in the dungeon.

The overlord segment was fun for us. We enjoyed that part, but I do feel it could have been handled a bit better. Anything that is preset should be disconnected from how people are seated.

My only gripe really is that the creature count guarding the tombs themselves where you can pick up treasure is set on the board. This really should have been a random tile that would be placed and card stacks to be resolved later. The game already has a ton of adventurers, why not up the replay with randomness on the creature side.

They do ask to you keep track of experience. This absolutely should have been handled with a board, dial, or counter to track. We shouldn’t have to pull out the paper, this does interfere with immersion which given the artwork is really good to begin with.

I can’t speak to the rulebook and how it was written, we are lucky enough to have one person who just handles all that along with usually picking up the games themselves.

I will say, if you find elements you don’t enjoy, any avid gamer should be tweaking the rules to their taste.

I would recommend as a fun game to any dungeon crawler. Just keep a close eye on the characters and cards you pick up, it will make a big difference.

This may have ignited the eternal flame for boardgames.
We had always done the Risk, Stratego, Axis & Allies etc…

Enter Hero Quest.

A classic boardgame complete with classes, spells, DM, and prebuilt scenarios, which if you’re anything like us, you play the first couple and quickly begin building your own, realizing the potential.

The variety in creatures was great and not overwhelming.
It was simple but not too simple and allowed for continuing with your characters for future adventures.

This was the single strongest boardgame competitor to the D&D/Battletech/Star Wars/Palladium full on RPG’s we would spend entire weekends on, devouring endless bags of chips, countless liters of Iced Tea all the while, needing showers.

We played this so much, the box went first, the doors bent in half after a year, the tables peeled away to white cardboard after two, and finally the swords, candlesticks, and other items of war snapped off.

My first impression was “Dude, dinosaurs… really?!?!”
That first impression was quickly squashed under the feet of a T-Rex!

Game play moves quickly as you have a few actions to choose from on your turn and the turns are limited.

Some actions grow the herd, others move the predators, others explore and adapt for a new environment.

The game comes down to control of land for dominance.

We played this a couple times as a group of 30 year olds with one of our buddies kids whom was 3. It was tons of fun and very accessible for people one can’t find a sitter or is having their friends over and the kids want to play too! Dad, or mom (for the gamer chicks), will have to help of course, but is still fun.

If you are sitting down with the kids, for sure this is a winner.
Engages the mind on a simple level and slows down the adults at higher levels to let the kids catch up of course!

It’s mostly in the luck of the draw tho being a card game.

Might be good too if you are trying to lure in people to the group.
Start here and progress thru some fast casual games, move into Samurai or Munchkin to add the notion of levels and keep them laughing and before you know it, geekdom is fully embraced!

A must have if you are dealing with a tight budget, have ten bucks, and want to kill the TV for a bunch!

I’ve never been huge on the miniatures game, but this one is a lot of fun!

Ships are purchased with a pool of points that each team starts with.
The pilot and weapon cards are fun, but not always useful.

This game quickly becomes insane with a group of people.
Especially if you have a few players that lack a decent sense of spatial awareness as your ships traverse a path across the table in accordance with your direction marker.

If your base touches anything, you crash.
If you hit asteroids, your in trouble.
If you hit another ship, good luck!
If you fly off the table, you’re done!

It’s advised though you keep the game play moving best you can.
It’s also a tough game if you are taken out early, it’s not the quickest game and where each team has their ships, unless you have spares it’s a tough game to observe.

If you’re an avid Star Wars fan, you’ll love the game even more.

It’s fun for the casual gamer, avid gamer, and if you are playing with a younger generation of dorkdom, it’s certainly kid friendly!

This game is amazing amounts of fun! It is the type of game if you are losing you are still having, again, amazing amounts of fun!

Your goal will vary by scenario, but everyone has a ship and the ability to fly thru the universe. From there, it’s up to you to go with legal and not lucrative, illegal and lucrative, or a mix of both.

You stand a chance to be raided by the evil ship and have your legal goods, eaten and/or destroyed or boarded by the Imperial Patrols who will confiscate contraband and freed prisoners.

If you hit a bad streak of luck, you can wait tables on any of the planets.

The design is great albeit a bit hodgepodge.
Each major marketplace, there are five or so, has their own design for artwork. The marketplaces sell equipment, ship parts, crew, and items. All of these will be needed at some point to complete missions.

The expansion adds two ships which is worth checking out.
One is a scout that travels quick, but little cargo.
The other is a cargo ship that moves slow but dwarves all others for storage.

The board is well thought out along with general game mechanics.

My only gripe is that you could lose you cargo in a raid, but still be on the hook for the mission. This is however mitigated somewhat by the traders you could randomly encounter.

The win condition is based on victory points.
You can achieve these thru quests, property, money, adventurers left in the tavern at the end of the game.

There are no dice in this game.
Before the hardcore D&D players get up in arms, dice would slow this game down and really put a damper on the fun here. I’m thrilled Wizards of the Coast kept this simple.

The score balances just like in History of the World.

My first time playing, I went straight for the quests and came in second.

You can accrue your adventurers thru various means and the game itself has a built in timer which is handy.

The design of the game is amazing where you really just have to glance at icons the entire time. No tomes of rules, no gotchas, not once ounce of filler is included in this game.

The expansion is just as elegant. It doesn’t incorporate much new at all, leaving the players to just enjoy more of this amazing game with some additional buildings, quests, and Lords to choose from.

A recommendation for any avid gamer. I would play this all night long, over and over again!

The game is fun but it’s very different with an audio component involved. I’ve rated it middle of the road strictly because it’s one of a kind and I’ve played it only once.

It’s a team play and syncs with the audio track.
Our friend who has it, recommends moving the pieces as you work thru the scenarios, vs moving after the audio bit.

It’s fun but I wouldn’t recommend after a long day as it is a bit more draining than you might expect as you have to also focus on the audio track in addition to the board and what everyone else is doing.

Spartacus is a great rendition of gladiator combat with politics and a market phase prior to the games.

It’s got a great way of balancing as you really need to manage your resources. You can buy things and beef up your gladiators, but you’ll rarely host which is the quick way to gain favor to ultimately win.

The card mechanics are easy and straight forward.
There are effects, reactions, and guards.
All of which can bought, sold, traded which is good cause you’ll likely need the resources at some point.

It can change quickly too. You could be up by five favor to just lose it the next round due to the schemes/effects.

Although the single player with the most favor generally wins, we like to have a primus, or multi team combat and leave the victory to the winning team. What better way to end a gladiator game but a final glorious onslaught in the arena with a two vs two combat.

Overall, a really fun game! It appeals to general gamers as the inside jokes could apply to many gaming universes.

Whether you’re wielding a ‘Sword that killed Squidzilla’ or cheating with a ‘Loaded Die’ you will have tons of fun and laugh like crazy while trying to level up your munchkin, all while trying to avoid that sex-change card! Your armor doesn’t fit right after!

I love how they merged the RP element in with a board game.
That’s not easy to do and still keep it moderately casual.

The various characters are all fun. (Save Ronan the Wild).

The premise is simple.
Kill the high dragon or enough of his spawn.

Weapons and allies are interesting and well balancing.

Events can be good, bad, neutral.

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Pro’s –
Has good RP essence/elements while still being somewhat casual.
No need for day long sessions, DM, bag of dice, manuals, books, ‘Darn I lost my character sheet and need to roll up another!’
Tiered difficulty with levels is handled masterfully.

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Con’s –
I could easily see an Inn event stack to complement to market step.

I’ve rated it the highest replay value despite the board being physically altered each game. This is because your strategy will change each game if even only by a little sometimes.

I won’t go into much detail because the game comes blank with everything under wraps to be revealed as you go. You could easily find the answers online, but I’m not going spoiler alert here on you!

Rules come out of left field.
Abilities could be upgraded, downgraded.
Board could be upgraded, downgraded.

You get the idea.

I will say, it plays a bit faster.
Your goal is to take four/five capitals, that’s it.
No grace, no quarter nothing. You get the fifth, you win!

It opens up the door for sneak attacks.

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Pro’s –
Easy to play/learn. Rules are largely based on the original.
New game each play thru.
Changes could be small.
Changes could be drastic.

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Con’s –
Changes are handled with stickers. I would think velcro but hey, it’s still fun and at 35.00 bucks you can buy another easy enough.
I’ve heard by and large they are the same. A rotation of say three random versions could be a really cool concept off the shelf.

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Overall, this game is a ton of fun! It’s a great twist on a great classic!

Everyone takes a character with unique abilities, items etc…
We then travel around Arkham to close the gates before the final creature awakens.

Gameplay can be fun if you aren’t cursed.
If you become cursed, rage quit and go play xbox.
The rest of your game won’t be any fun.

There are various places to explore and a lot of different things you can do as a player. I enjoy this aspect of it a lot.

Defeating the wandering creatures can be all or nothing at times.
You either need to be beefed up in items or magic, otherwise you’re in trouble.

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Pro’s –
A lot of smaller quests.
Various characters to play.
Various end creatures to defeat.

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Con’s –
A whole bunch in this game.
Wandering monsters are it’s own system.
Could use a great deal of simplification.
Time consuming, with 100% satisfaction for only a few players.
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Overall, it’s fun but it’s very time consuming and can be a drag if you aren’t coming up with much at all. I’m all for a challenge don’t get me wrong, but when you are down in this game it has a tendency of kicking you some more.

Team based boardgames were a bit for me to adjust to.
I came up on RPG’s, Risk and Axis & Allies.
Generally for boardgames it was kill or be killed.

I thoroughly enjoyed this game.
Each player has an ability that is used in some way to stem the viruses. Dark comedy unfolds as the viruses take over! We have an epidemiologist in our group, he loves this one!

You travel across the world to clean and research for cures.
The game has a built in timer and if the virus grows too prolific, it’s game over.

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Pro’s –
Easy to setup.
Quick to play.
Easy to learn.
Fun as ****.

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Con’s –
You could make the argument that the theme is just plain scary.
They could have taken this one step further with a saboteur, which an expansion may have handled at this point.

This game is amazing. It’s length of play unfortunately pushes it to early evening/mid afternoon start time. Our group is predominantly 30 something working professionals so it’s rare we have this time.

The universe is incredibly robust and includes many races with awesome abilities, planets and environmental embellishes, a technology tree that is rivaled by none, and other ways to win outside of straight combat.

Economy system is well balanced, and the secondary actions remove the ‘Hurry up and go’ mentality we may all get with slower players.

In short, this game fixed any problems you would see from mechanics from Axis/Allies and the computer game Master of Orion.

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Pro’s –
Artwork is great.
Design is great.
Iconography/Artwork answer a good deal of questions after your first play thru.
Variety of races will keep you intrigued for many games to come.
Ship upgrades/tech tree/planetary and environment effects are well thought out.
Expansion added some awesome races!

Con’s –
This game is amazingly fun, but no joke, it’s the most complex game I’ve seen out there.
Sometimes a second play thru is in order to get the whole deal.
Time consuming. It’s fun, but we’ve logged no less than six hours for a game of Twilight Imperium.
Expansion extended the diplomats, I’d play without them personally.

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Overall, an awesome game whose universe was well thought out leaving no detail unaccounted for. Prepare for an all nighter or a weekend though.

There were only a couple of ways to get victory points, so you do have to play a bit aggressively.

It’s your call entirely to the magic/abilities you ascribe to. Any/all combinations could get you the victory. It’s replay is pretty good with the various abilities to purchase in game, but they are one shot purchases so you do need to flesh out a strategy.

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Pro’s –
Easy setup.
Easy to learn.
Again, iconography and artwork will answer most question at a glance after your first play thru.
Abilities are interesting and provide for more ‘Let’s try this’ on the next play thru.
Moderate time to play, leaving room for a second.
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Con’s –
The races don’t really have unique abilities, though they went thru the cost of creating unique race cards. I guess better than nothing though as the artwork was pretty good.

Admittedly, I didn’t follow the show.
I can’t nor would I speak to it following the series.
Creators would invariably take some creative license anyways.

A fun game, but it’s always bad news for the good guys.
Not a good fit for emotionally unstable, easily depressed etc…

It’s a great balance of choosing the lesser of two evils and if the humans win, it’s seldom by much at the end of the game.

Expansions are recommended because the Psilons ship with their own ship/board which I thought added a great deal of fun to being the bad guy!

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Pro’s –
According to those whose followed the series, it’s pretty accurate.
If you didn’t watch the show, you aren’t lost or scratching your head.
Pretty easy on the setup.
Characters are pretty interesting. A type for everyone.

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Con’s –
Learning curve is a bit. There’s alot of smaller things that come up after a once thru of the rules.
It can take a bit long sometimes.
The board is a bit funky to fold up. Our gamekeeper keeps his wares in pristine condition!

The game is great. With a wide berth of prebuilt options to choose from you can get started right away or take some time for customization.

There are a good deal of tokens/markers but don’t be overwhelmed, they all serve a use for the various wizards.

Deck construction can take some time as there are some rules, and tinkering will require a pretty good knowledge of how the game plays. I usually enjoy that aspect, but went thru that with M:TG. These days, I just want to play as much as I can and not tinker so much.

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Pro’s –
Huge variety in spellbooks/wizards. Healers, rangers, warlocks, dark, evil, light etc…
Not much in terms of setup if you play prebuilts or smaller edits to the spellbooks.
Designed well using vernacular from other games. (As it should.) Builds on what worked and is established, creative in it’s interpretation and implementation of spells.

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Con’s –
4 Players out of the box, though the gamekeeper in our clan bought a second set. We are usually 5+ for weekly sessions.
Can get lengthy, but once a couple have fallen it shakes out pretty fast.

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A great deck based game and an addition to any serious game collection.

It’s like Twilight Imperium Light.
Game is well thought out with many races to choose from.

Universe is carefully crafted with these races, big planet to take over, and other smaller ways to win if combat isn’t your style or you get a bad run of luck with your surrounding planets.

Pro’s –
Moderate time to play.
Many races to choose from.
Amazing design, iconography/artwork answer most questions after your first play thru.
Economy system is well balanced and thought out.
Having your own card with resource cubes is always cool!

Con’s –
Universe can take a bit of space if played in a smaller apartment with mid-sized groups.
Can be a drag at times if you have bad luck with your surrounding planets. Though you usually are afforded an out somehow.

This is one of my favorites, and I not the biggest fan of sci-fi genres.

Unless everyone is close to an exit at the end the game, you’ll likely have something that can increase the alarm anyways and trap everyone.
Those trapped cut their data files in half, so you might as well forge on collect everything, and drop the hammer when the time is right.

Put everything into leveling even if you make a run at a level 2 off the start. A jump on the opponents in this game will propel you to the lead quickly. If you are real evil, nab the 2’s first and scoop 1’s to level. Excess is wasted anyways and it keeps the others from progressing.

Save your spoils too, there are awesome things to purchase in the market phase of this game.

If at all possible, don’t bother with Ronan of the Wild, he’s terrible and I think he’s fed to a dragon for being so terrible in the macro version of this game “Rune Wars”!

Played Agricola for the first time. Fun game all in all. I’ve written a review if anyone was interested to read. Lords of Waterdeep was on for the second, though sadly I had to depart prior to finishing.

Have always played games since I was a kid.
Began with the uber basic board games, progressed to Chess and other classic strategy games, moved to RPG’s and video games and now reside in the Boardgames genre.

It’s fun to suspend disbelief and experience a world that so much care has gone into creating. It keeps the mind turning and the imagination fresh!

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About Me

Avid gamer by weekend.
Web designer/front end developer by day.
I'm into most boardgames.
I like some of the longer ones like Twilight Imperium a lot, but often choose shorter ones to enjoy the variety of a couple in one night if possible.
We have a group that meets weekly at least once, sometimes two or three times. Our preferences span across genres, gaming universes, and short/long games.